Goodbye PG, Welcome to the New Era in WWE

To many wrestling fans, the Attitude Era is the greatest era in professional wrestling history. It is the benchmark in which all characters and angles since have been judged. Whether unfair or not, it is unquestionable about its impact.

The WWE made a transition from its Attitude Era to the era we have now deemed the ‘PG era.’ Obviously because the WWE went from being a ‘hard TV14’ in which boundaries were pushed to going to the saccharine kid friendly environment we have today. Though there is nothing wrong with family entertainment, you must overcome that obstacle with great storytelling.

New eras are already brewing before they come to fruition but there are landmarks that solidify themselves. The first WrestleMania issued the beginning of the Hogan era while Hogan’s departure signified the ‘New Generation.’ There are many dates that people point to with the arrival of the Attitude era. Some point to Austin’s epic match with Bret at WrestleMania 13, others to Mike Tyson’s debut in accordance with Austin’s WWF title win at WrestleMania 14, but to me, it was Austin’s coronation at the 1997 King of the Ring tournament. Finally, the Attitude’s death could be attributed to the acquiring of WCW or when they dropped the F and became a publicly traded company. Any of the dates could be debatable but there is no mistaking this new era’s birth.

This new era is making the fans even increasingly frustrated mainly because I believe they don’t realize we have transition to the next one. This is compounded with the fact that an awful era is followed by an equally awesome one, but it is hard to outdo the zealotry of the wrestling fan. They are willing to accept a lot of punishment for the sins of the WWE so they can experience paradise. They know that wrestling is cyclical and that eras have a certain lifespan.

The next era was suppose to save us, give the wrestling fans a reason to watch, to get excited, bask in the fact that we waited out the dregs of the PG era, our thank you for watching all these years. The transition of a new era comes with a fresh face with new ideals, a figurehead that the company builds its whole show and feel to, with Hogan, then Bret, then Stone Cold, then John Cena.

However, the figurehead of this new era is not someone we can build a show around. This is not a fresh face. This is someone we already know. Cena can’t pass the torch to this idol because he already is one. Though we all love the bastion of this new era, he is keeping us from moving on. He is championing the cause of this new era, in fact, he is the champion, the WWE Champion, the People’s Champion, the Rock. The eras landmark was his return in 2011 and our new era should be called, ‘The Part-Time Era.’

The hardcore wrestling fan doesn’t even realize it’s been ushered in. They feel we’re still in the ‘PG’ era, waiting for our exodus. The frustration of the wrestling fan has reached insanity levels, climaxing with this year’s Royal Rumble and its following Raw. We see the future, we see the inevitability of our next WrestleMania, that The Rock is our new WWE Champion in the number one match, Brock Lesnar returns in our number two, the Undertaker will most likely return to to be in our number three, and Chris Jericho to be our fourth. It is this that got me to realize this eras inception. It is here wrestling fans, so calm down and try to enjoy this new era while it lasts, it should only be another five years.

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It has nothing to do with eras. It has to do with the fact that NOBODY would watch Wrestlemania without guys like Rock, Brock, HHH, Undertaker, Jericho...etc. Punk, Ziggler, Cesaro, etc couldn't draw a classroom to rent WM, let alone the 1.3 Million it wants to beat from last year.

The Part-Time Era... I like that. The term, I mean, not the fact that it's happening. I do think WWE is going to back off the kid-friendly crap now that Linda's elections aren't a factor anymore. We're kind of already seeing it, Punk and Rocky have been using some decidedly non-PG language in their promos lately, and I'm willing to bet that blood will make it's glorious return to PPV in 2013. I don't think they will go back to TV-14 again (nor should they), but I think they'll see that they need grown-up fans too.